The battle to merge colleges continuing Officials promise to push UMAB-UMBC as one big school.

May 11, 1992|By Thomas W. Waldron | Thomas W. Waldron,Staff Writer

Despite a stinging defeat in the State House, higher education officials say they will keep working to merge two Baltimore-area schools into one major university.

The proposal, which would merge the University of Maryland's Baltimore County and downtown Baltimore campuses, is supported by both schools but died in the legislature this year.

The concrete reasons for a merger are a little hard to pin down. Proponents talk about the combined venture creating "synergy" and spurring high-tech research and economic development.

Critics say the merger is simply a good old-fashioned political power play, pitting the Baltimore area against the Washington suburbs, where some officials fear that a super-college in Baltimore would hurt College Park, the state's flagship campus.

Despite that opposition, merger forces seem to be in the majority.

"My reading is that there are 3 million people for it and one person against it," said Errol L. Reese, UMAB president.

The one person is Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., who has vowed to kill any merger for years to come. Mr. Miller, a Prince George's County Democrat, didn't even allow the proposed merger bill to come to a vote in a Senate committee this year, after it easily cleared the House of Delegates.

Mr. Miller, who graduated from UM's College Park campus and is its most staunch defender in Annapolis, won't discuss the issue.

"I don't have any comments about it," he said. But he has told friends privately that a combined Baltimore school less than 25 miles north of College Park would steal tight state funds from his alma mater. He has also said that the issue is being driven by Baltimore business interests with few statewide considerations.

While the merger idea percolates for an other year, both Baltimore schools are thinking big.

UMBChas developed a master plan that calls for increasing enrollment from 10,000 to 16,000 in 20 years, reducing the faculty-to-student ratio, and doubling its academic space. The project would cost more than $244 million over 20 years and would transform the campus.

At UMAB, Dr. Reese wants to draw the national spotlight on the school's collection of professional and graduate schools. The law and medical schools, for example, are well-known in those professions. As a complete university, however, UMAB has no clear identity, Dr. Reese said.